| | | By pushed forward, I mean they weren't the general consensus. The Nazis were sort of a blank canvas, different groups saw them differently. They started more or less like the Klan did. A bunch of guys looking for an excuse to get together and drink. They called themselves socialists, but today they would be called populists. Schicklgruber found it pretty easy to become a dominant figure in the party because most of the members were just drunk farmers and common laborers, larded with more than its share of fringe figures. With no real core beliefs, other than what the mustachioed one wanted, they could package themselves to appeal to the groups with political power at the same time they could fill the streets with violent mobs.
For the educated and more cosmopolitan Germans, the price of eggs was a crisis. Their monarchy had crumbled with a lost war they were being told, and had every right to believe, was in their favor, until suddenly it wasn't. A terrible disease had stalked the land in the final days of the war, killing tens of thousands of people. Their new democracy had adopted a policy of inflating their way out of the ruinous war reparations that were imposed, which collapsed the economy and only added to their feelings of betrayal.
What made it worse was the German people had been primed to build an empire for the previous few decades. I could recapitulate German history here, but suffice it to say that after being a bunch of city-states that were plowed by the continental powers for centuries, had finally united as an empire and had grown to the point where they wanted a seat at the table with the others. They had some African colonies, but wanted more. Sadly, that game was no longer a thing in Europe, they saw what modern weapons could do in the US (not so)Civil War after the devastation of the Napoleonic Wars and wars for land in Europe was falling out of favor. Bismarck didn't agree. The results speak for themselves. So the German people were primed for expansion, had it in their grasp, only to have it yanked away at the last moment. So that was the mindset. Not being total dumbasses, they blamed the people who had power. The business owners. The wealthy families. The elites. That wasn't tolerable, so they cast about for a new set of betrayers...
The Nazis were seen by too many Germans as a middle finger to the Weimar Republic. The Nazis also promised retribution against their betrayers, immigrants and non-Germans. Even so, the best they could do was a plurality. This is where the courting of the elites came in. They convinced von Hindenburg that the Nazis were clowns and Adolf was controllable and history was made... |
|
